Immigrants and Refugees: Evidence-based Social Work Practice

by

Rowena Fong

• LAST REVIEWED: 25 May 2011
• LAST MODIFIED: 25 May 2011
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389678-0090

Introduction

Immigrants and refugees are an integral part of American society and the rest of the world. Immigration status has differentiated immigrants to be persons who, with or without legal documentation, leave their homes of origin to seek employment, family reunification, education, or new beginnings in another country. Immigrants have the option of returning to their homelands. Refugees, on the other hand, leave their countries of origin seeking refugee status because of political or religious oppression, and flee persecution and torture without the option of returning to their home countries for safety reasons. Asylees are also persons who leave their homelands because of persecution and torture, and seek refugee status after they have arrived in new countries.

Introductory Works

Potocky-Tripodi 2002 and Segal 2002 offer overviews of the problems faced by immigrants and refugees. Both also discuss recommendations for specific evidence-based interventions at micro, mezzo, and macro levels of practice, covering a wide range of areas related to health, mental health, education, economics, housing, social welfare, criminal justice, and substance abuse.

• Potocky-Tripodi, M. 2002. Best practices for social work with refugees and immigrants. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.

  This text is a guide to social work practice with refugees and immigrants, providing background information about them. It presents concrete recommendations regarding age-specific, evidence-based practices for interventions at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of social work practice in health care, mental health, family, education, and economic situations.

• Segal, U. 2002. A framework for immigration: Asians in the United States. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.

  This introductory work gives readers the historical accounts of immigration experiences, documenting public policies related to social welfare, housing, education, criminal justice, health, mental health, and substance abuse.